Survival Is The Key
by hollowichigo25
Summary: Kirito gains a dark new ability in SAO with a deadly new sword. Armed with new weapons and sword skills will he learn to control this power or will it destroy him and everyone he loves.
1. Chapter 1

"Speaking"

_Thoughts_

A teenage boy was sat at his computer listening to a report about the new VRMMORPG called Sword Art Online. His sister was downstairs getting ready to go to kendo. "Hey Kazuto I'm off to practice now" she says as she goes out the front door. He takes off his headphones to see his sister running out of the gate. Kazuto plugs in his nerve gear and lies down. He closes his eyes and says "LINK START".

The game loads and spawns him in the tutorial area and he looks around to see other people spawning in. Kazuto runs to the nearest exit but stops when he hears someone shouting after him. "Hey wait up". Kazuto turns around to see a red headed guy with a bandana on. "You look like you know what you are doing where you in the beta" the guy said. Kazuto looks at him before nodding his head. "Awesome can you lend me a hand I'm new to the game and I need some help, the names Klein" he says while holding out his hand. "Alright fine I'm Kirito" he says while shaking Klein's hand.

"You're getting better" Kirito says to Klein after a few hours of training. "Haha it's thanks to you" Klein says while scratching his neck. Klein stands up and asks "Hey Kirito fancy a spar". "You're on" was his reply before he drew his blade preparing to attack. As their blades clash they heard someone scream "HELP". "What was that" Klein said as he put his sword in its sheath. Kirito replied with "I don't know but let's find out this way".

They ran into the forest until they came across a clearing and Kirito spotted some people nearby. He darted behind a bush ad Klein was about to run past him but he grabbed him and dragged him into the bush. "No-one can hear you and no-one will help you so why don't you just give us your stuff and we will let you live" one of the guys said. Kirito couldn't tell who they were because they had hoods up. He looks to their right to find a girl with long purple hair with an angry look staring at them. "Should we help her" Kirito whispered to Klein. "I don't know what if it's a trap to lure people in to get their gear of them" Klein replies. "And if it isn't". Kirito replied with anger in his voice. Klein looked at Kirito and says "Well what should we do". They look back up to see one of the guys unsheathe his sword and starts to attack the girl.

Without giving a verbal reply Kirito draws his sword and jumps out of the bush. He activates a sword skill and shouts "Switch". The girl quickly looks behind her to see a boy running at her. She blocks one of the attacks and backflips over him. Kirito ducks under and says "Vertical Square". The skill connects and kills one of the three guys as Kirito jumps back. He turns around to look at the girl and says "Hey are you alright". She looks at him with sparkling red eyes and replies "I will be now." _She cute _Kirito thought.

"Kirito look out" Klein shouted from the bush. Before he could react and purple blur shot passed him and parried the attack. "Thanks" Kirito says. One of the guys jumped over them and faced Kirito. Kirito and the girl where back to back. The girl notice him sheath his sword and the other guy returned next to him. Kirito stood next to her when one of them started to speak "Kirito I will remember that name". With that they turned and retreated. _That was creepy_, Kirito thought.

Kirito sheaths his sword and says to the girl "you ok". "Yeah I am thank you" the girl says with a smile "Good I'm Kirito and this is Klein" Kirito says pointing to himself then Klein who was coming out of his hiding spot. "Nice to meet you" Klein says. The girl smiles and Klein and Kirito then says "Nice to meet you too Klein and Kirito my names Yuuki.

"So mind telling us what all that was about" Kirito says. "Ahh they wanted my gear and if I didn't give them it they were going to take my stuff and then PK me." Yuuki says while blushing. "Ahh" Klein screams from next to them pointing at something. Kirito and Yuuki turn to him with a confused look. "OH I forgot to tell you that I ordered some food and I forgot the time" Klein answers their confused look. "I hate to leave you but nothing gets in the way of me and my food" Klein says with a big grin on his face.

Kirito holds out his hand and says "I will see you later then". Klein shakes his and bids goodbye to both of the before turning around to log off. Kirito and Yuuki begin to walk away when Klein stops them by saying "Err guys where's the log out button" Kirito turns around and swipes open his menu and begins to walk towards Klein. "It's in the setting menu right at the bottom here I will…." Kirito trails off when he notices the log out button isn't there. "What's wrong" Yuuki says peering over Kirito shoulders. He turns his head to look at her and says "Have a look" She looks at his menu to see no log out button. She goes to say something but the three of them are teleported. "Somebody forced a teleport" Kirito says as he looks around. "Hey look at that" somebody said in the crowd. "What's going on" Yuuki says "I think were about to find out" Kirito says pointing to where there was a floating person.

**Attention, players. Welcome to my world**. Kirito looks at him and mutters "My world". **My name is Kayaba Akihiko. At this moment, I am the sole person who can control this world. I am sure by now you have all noticed that the logout button is missing from the main menu. ** Kirito felt a weight drop onto his shoulder and arm. He turned to see Yuuki clutching his arm. **But this is not a defect in the game. I repeat this is not a defect. This is a feature of Sword Art Online. "**W-what" Klein stuttered out. **You cannot log out of SAO yourselves. And no-one on the outside world can shut down or remove the Nerve Gear. **

**Should this be attempted, the transmitter inside the Nerve Gear will emit a powerful microwave, destroying your brain and ending your life. Unfortunately several players and their families have ignored this warning. As a result, two hundred and thirteen players are gone forever, Aincrad and the real world. The gm pulled up several news feeds. As you now can see, news organizations across the world reporting all of this including the deaths. Thus you can assume the danger of a Nerve Gear being removed is now minimal. There is no method to revive someone within the game. If your HP drops to zero, your avatar will be lost forever. And simultaneously, the Nerve Gear will destroy your brain.**

Kirito's mind flashes to his sister then to his mother. He remembers he left them behind in the real world. Kirito's mind flashed back to where he killed the guy to save Yuuki. His body went stiff when he realised that he has killed someone and his mind went numb. He went to collapse but Yuuki caught him. The gm kept talking but nothing was registering. Yuuki whispered things into his ear to calm him down. **Defeat the final boss on floor 100, and you will clear the game.** Cries of disbelief flooded the place. **Finally I've added a present from me to your item storage.** Present? Kirito said to himself as he opened his menu. In his inventory was an object named [mirror]. Everyone started to look at the mirror. The entire plaza glowed with white light. Kirito looked in the mirror to find his real life self-staring back at him.

"Kazuto is that you" somebody said next to him. He looked to the side and saw one of his school friends next to him. "Ryoutarou is that you" Kirito said to him. Klein walked up to him and says "all this time it's been you I have been playing this game with". "Is that you Kirito" a small voice came from behind him. He turned around and nodded his head and says "Yeah it's me I take it your Yuuki". Yuuki jumps at him and buries her head into his chest and says "Yeah it's me. **This ends the tutorial of the official launch of sword art online. Good luck players.**

Kirito grabbed hold of Yuuki and Klein and ran to the town exit. "What are you doing" Klein says finally regaining his breath. "We need to leave and we need to get ahead of everyone else so we can survive" Kirito says. "I'm sorry man I really am but I can't come with you." Kirito nods his understanding what he's getting at. A friend requested popped up on Kirito's screen and he accepted it. "Stay safe and stay alive and I'm sure we will see each other again Kaz" Klein says before running off. Kirito shouts "You too". He turns to ask Yuuki but he took one look into her eyes and he knew what her answer was. He put his hand on top of her head and rubbed it affectional. Yuuki jumped into his chest again and hugged him. She pulls back and smiles at him before turning away and runs off. Kirito goes to do the same when another friend request pops up. He smiles and accepts and leaves. _I will survive and I will get to the last floor and beat the boss and leave this world _Kirito thought as he killed a wolf.

**Hey everyone back with another story. I don't know what to write down here apart from I will try and update the other two stories when I can think of something to write down. Well I hope you enjoy this new story.**


	2. Chapter 2

"Speaking"

"_Thoughts"_

**AN: Hey everyone here is the next update. Sorry it took too long just finished watching the Anime Your Lie In April. What an emotional Roller-coaster it is. Plus I've started playing Shadow of the Colossus for the first time and that game is awesome so updates might take a while longer. Well I'm signing off now Cya. **

A few weeks later, Kirito was leant against a wall thinking how no-one could find the first floor boss room not even the beater testers. There was a meeting to be held to find out if anyone knew where it was.

"Well better get going" Kirito said to no-one in particular. He opened up his menu to put his coat on when he felt a sharp pain go through his head. "Urgghh" he said while covering his right eye. Kirito leant against the wall catching his breath. "_What was that all about"_ he thought.

He pulled out his jacket and flung it around his shoulders and pulled the hood up and let the sleeves dangle. [**AN: the same way Yami Yugi where's his minus the hood]. **When Kirito got to the meeting he sat at the back so no-one would sit next to him. He looked around to see Klein and his friends. Next to him were Yuuki and a brunette who he doesn't know. "You know if you sit with your hood up and you don't talk to anyone no-one will talk to you and you won't make friends" said a voice next to him.

Kirito turned and looked at her before replying "That's the point". Kirito stood up and went to move but a hand stopped him. "Hey easy I'm only being nice to you, you don't have to give me the cold shoulder" she said. He thought for a second then sat back down. "I'm Sinon nice to meet you" the girl said. "I'm Kirito" was his reply. Sinon smiled at him before saying "See was that hard" while playfully nudging his shoulder. A small smile tugged Kirito's lips as he said "Yeah it was".

A player stepped up and began to speak to everyone. "My name is Diabel and the job I chose was knight". Some people began to laugh saying there wasn't a job system in the game. "Yesterday a party found the boss room in the dungeon. We need to defeat the boss, reach the second floor and tell everyone in the town of beginnings that it is possible to beat this game" Diabel said. A message pops up in front of Kirito saying would you like to join Sinon's party and he accepts it. Diabel tells them to rest up and they will meet tomorrow for the boss raid. "Well I guess I will see you tomorrow then" Kirito says while giving a wave over his shoulder as he walks off.

The next morning Kirito meets Sinon at the meeting point and they head towards the boss room. The walk to the boss room was quite until Sinon says "So you going to take down the hood or not". Kirito looks at her but doesn't say anything and continued on walking. They arrive at boss door and they draw their weapons and Sinon looks at Kirito to see him wielding his sword in a weird way. Kirito held the handle upside down and had the blade going up his arm. **[AN: Like Ventus from KHBBS]. **"Just testing a new way to wield it and I can change back if I don't like it" Kirito says to wide eyed Sinon. "Is everybody ready" Diabel shouts to the group. Everyone shouts yes as they charge the boss room.

"Squad A and B attack the boss while C, D and everyone else take care of the enemies Diabel orders. "Switch" Kirito shouts. Sinon nocks the sword away and Kirito jumps in and takes out monster. "You doing ok" he says to Sinon. "Yeah but do me a favour and take down that stupid hood" Sinon replies while attacking a monster. Kirito sighs and removes the hood while dodging an attack. "Better" Kirito says when he lands. Sinon turns and looks at him and she nods her head.

"Stand back and let me take care of it" Diabel shouts as he runs towards the boss. "What does he think he is doing" Sinon says to Kirito. He looks towards Diabel and back to Sinon and says "He is going for the last attack bonus". The boss discards its weapon and pulls out a new one and starts to run a Diabel. _"That's not a talwar it's a __nōdachi"_ Kirito thought as his eyes widened. "Diabel watch out" Kirito shouted as he ran towards him. He knocked Diabel out of the way and went to parry the attack but, the boss knocked Kirito's sword out of his hand and knocked him into a pillar.

"Urgghh" Kirito said as the pillar collapsed on top of him. "Kirito" Sinon shouted as she ran towards him but stopped when Diabel shouted "Stay in formation". "What about Kirito" Sinon shouted at him. "Is he still alive" a soft voice came from beside her. Sinon turned to see a purple haired girl staring at her. She looked at his health bar to see there was 1HP left and she nodded her head. "Good" the girl said. Sinon was about to ask if she Kirito when the room started to vibrate.

The pillar with Kirito underneath explodes and a figure jumps out from underneath it. The person lifts there head up to reveal a mask covering their eyes and had their hood up. The figure opened his eyes to reveal pitch black eyes with red iris. "Is that Kirito" the girl asks Sinon. Sinon opens up her menu and clicks Kirito's name and it highlights the figure in front of them. Sinon slowly nods her head.

Kirito flicks his wrist and his blade fly's across the room and into his hand. Once the blade reached his hand, it transformed into a scythe. He disappears and he reappears in front of the boss and says "Moonlight Fang". A black projectile wraps around his blade before it hits the boss and takes away half of its last life bar. He spins the scythe around and says "rest in peace" as the boss splits in too.

"_You think everyone would be happy but…" _Sinon thought but trailed off as Kirito walked towards them. "You were in the beta and you knew the boss had a different weapon so why didn't you tell me" Diabel said to Kirito. "It wouldn't have made a difference if I did anyway" Kirito starts to say to Diabel while looking at him. "You had it all planned out in your mind, You would get us to do the dirty work and even have some of us die and then you wold come in and finish it off to get the last attacking bonus" Kirito finishes in a dark voice.

"Who are you" Sinon says to him. He turns to her a smiles and says "I'm Kirito nice to meet you". "You are not the Kirito we used to know" someone says from his left. He turns to see Klein and Yuuki looking at him. "Hahaha you want that loser and weakling please I'm ten times better than he is" Kirito says spinning the scythe around.

Yuuki walks up to him and says "give him back to me now". He gave her a lop sided grin and replied "and if I don't". Yuuki gripped her sword and narrowed her eyes at him. He sighed and said "fine you win for now but remember this you haven't seen the last of me". Kirito closed his eyes and punched the mask and it began to crack. The scythe disappeared and his sword reappeared. His mask finally shattered and Kirito fell forward into Yuuki's grasp.

She hosted him up on his back with the help of Klein and walked towards the door while Sinon and Klein followed her. "What are you doing we should kill him while we have the chance" somebody said behind her. She turned around and said "no-one is killing him and I will hurt anybody who will try". With that she walked towards the door to the next floor.


	3. Chapter 3

Speaking

_Thoughts_

**Dark Kirito's thoughts**

"Urgghh" Kirito groaned as he opened his eyes but quickly shut them because of the light streaming in. "Oh good your awake" somebody said next to him. Kirito turned his head to see Sinon sitting on the couch next to the bed.

"What happened" Kirito said as he sat up. Sinon thought for a moment wondering if she should tell him what really happened. "You passed out after the boss was defeated, come on into the next room everyone is waiting for you". _"Everyone" _Kirito thought as he jumped out of bed and stretched and checked is inventory. He stopped when he came across something. _"Dread Scythe"_ Kirito thought as he clicked it.

A double edged scythe materialized into his hands. "Err Sinon what is this" Kirito said as he was spinning the scythe around. Sinon turned around and her eyes widened at what Kirito was doing and what he had in his hands. She thought back to when the other Kirito was doing the exact same thing and it worried her. She thought to play it safe and said "Where did you get that from".

"Beats me it was already in my inventory when I opened it up" Kirito said as he unequipped it. Sinon walked out of the room and didn't say a word. Kirito lifted an eyebrow and thought _"There's something going on here and she isn't telling me"._ Kirito walked out of his room and into the next to get suddenly tackled back out of it by a purple streak.

"Urgghh" Kirito said as he hit the deck. "I thought you said you were going to at least let him in the room before you did that Yuuki" Sinon said from the door way. "He was taking too long" Yuuki muffled a reply. "You ok" Yuuki said as she sat up. "I was until I got tackled out of the door" Yuuki stuck her tongue out at him as she stood. "Careful someone might bite that of" Kirito said. _"Will you" _Yuuki thought as she helped Kirito up and into the room.

"This is Asuna" and this is Kirito" Yuuki said point between the two. "Hey" Kirito says while sticking his hand out. Asuna looked at him for a few seconds before smiling shaking his hand saying "Hey". "You gave us quiet a scare when you collapsed after the boss fight" Klein said from across the table. **"They're lying** **to you ask them what really happened" **someone said. Kirito looked around the room trying to find the source of the voice.

"Hey you ok" Yuuki said sitting next to him. "Yeah I'm fine so what really happened after the pillar fell on me." Kirito said looking at everyone. "Don't you remember" Sinon said her eyebrows rose in concern. "No the last thing I remember was getting hit by the boss into a pillar and it collapsed on top of me". Kirito said scratching his head trying to remember what happened. "We already told you, you collapsed at the end of it".

"**They're supposed to be your friends and their lying to you ask about the scythe in your inventory"** the voice said again. "So why do I have a scythe in my inventory all of a sudden" Kirito said standing up. Everyone's eyes widened as he said this. Kirito felt a sharp pain go through his head again and clutched his left eye. Yuuki jumped up and over to him and said in a panicked voice "Hey Kirito you ok" "Yeah I'm fine don't worry about it" Kirito said as he took his hand away from his face.

Yuuki looked at his face and saw his left eye was red but when he blinked it was back to black. "Are you going to tell me the truth or not" Kirito said to them one last time. No-one said anything and they tried to look anywhere but him. Kirito didn't say a word as he walked past them and out of the room. "Why can't we tell him what really happened" Yuuki said quietly. "Because he might freak out and we don't know what he might do" Sinon said. Yuuki quickly turned around and glared at Sinon and said "What would you rather have a freaked out Kirito or him not be our friends anymore and not talking to us and have him find out himself.

Yuuki walked out of the room and slammed the door shut. "What should we do" Asuna said to no-one in particular. Kirito was sat on his bed trying to remember what had happened when he heard that voice again. "**So much for them being your friends if they can't tell you what happened". **"You tell me what happened then" Kirito said to himself **"Haha no can do kiddo not in the contract" **What contract" Kirito said. **He sighed and said "It's just a saying"**

"Urgghh whatever" Kirito said as he opened the window and jumped out of it. Yuuki was stood outside Kirito's room debating whether to tell him the truth or not. "_He deserves to know what happened" _she thought as she entered the room. The room was empty. "Kirito you in here" Yuuki said as she walked to the bathroom. She knocked on the door and there was no answer. Yuuki then opened the door and the bathroom was empty. She quickly ran down the stairs and found the table her friends were sat at. "Kirito's not in his room" Yuuki quickly said to them. "Do you know where he went" Sinon said worried. "No but we have to find him" Yuuki said as she ran out of the door.

Kirito sheathed his sword away after he finished off the monster. "That was easy" he said. He continued walking until he came across a big door. "**Hey boss what do you think is behind here" **the voice said. "It's the boss room Kirito said as he pushed the door open. He walked to the middle of the room and stopped. "**So if it's the boss room why the hell are you in here alone"** the voice said. "Just checking what the boss is so I can tell everyone else" Kirito's replied.

"**You might want to turn around". **Kirito turned around and came face to face with a giant toad named Bael. "Who named and created these bosses" Kirito said as he dodged an attack. "**It means Lord Dipshit and would you rather have pretty female bosses attacking you instead". **"No because I probably wouldn't hit it". Kirito said as he tried to make it to the exit. **"Look out".** Kirito turned to see the boss tail strike him and it sent him into the wall.

"Urgghh what is it with bosses flinging me around so much" Kirito said as he rubbed the back of his head. "Kirito lookout" he heard someone say behind him. He turned around to see Yuuki take the bosses attack instead of him. "YUUKI" Kirito shouted as he ran towards her. "I'm not going to make it" he said as he continued to sprint faster. The last thing he heard as he jumped towards Yuuki was "**Use the mask".**

"Kirito" Sinon and Klein said as the entered the room. The dust settled and the boss attack was being blocked by a sword. "Kirito" Yuuki said as she looked up. Instead of the white mask covering his eyes this time it was a black mask covering his entire face. "Sorry Kirito's not here right now". He turned around and looked at Yuuki. "You don't seem afraid of me like everyone else is". Yuuki looked right into his eyes and said "I know my Kirito is in their somewhere so I will trust you for now, so what is your name then". He looked at her before saying "I don't have a name I wasn't giving one but you may call me Nero".

Nero looked back at the boss and said "can we kill this thing now it's ugly" Yuuki smiled and said "Not as ugly as you" "Cut me some slack. I'm just not big on toads". Nero looked back at her and nodded he activated a sword and shouted "GETSUGA TENSHŌ" and jumped at the boss.

**AN: You may have noticed the last part is from Bleach, but I thought it would make a good sword skill. Don't worry he won't go trigger happy with it like Ichigo does.**


End file.
